In today’s lesson we’ll have a look a look at the adjective paresseux, which means “lazy”. We’ll look at the masculine and femine forms paresseux and paresseuse, as well as the related noun la paresse (laziness, sloth).
paresseux, paresseuse
lazy
Paresseux – lazy
Word origin
The French adjective paresseux is dervied from the feminine noun and animal paresse (sloth). The word paresse is related to pigritia in Latin.
Example sentences
For this first sentence, I could have used another way of saying “to mow the lawn”: tondre le gazon.
Marc est paresseux. Il ne veut pas tondre la pelouse.
Marc is lazy. He doesn’t want to cut the grass.
This example sentence uses the ne + verb rien negation structure to mean “nothing” or “anything”. This lesson covers negation rules.
Sylvie est très paresseuse. Elle ne fait rien aujourd’hui.
Sylvie is lazy. She’s not doing anything today.
This example uses a fun expression. In French avoir le cafard (literally to have the cockroach) means to be depressed or to have the blues. As mentioned, paresse is the noun for laziness and also refers to the animal called the sloth.
Jean a le cafard récemment est sa paresse devient inquiétante.
Jean has been depressed recently and his laziness is becoming worrisome.
Related lessons
References
